Swimming Open Category

[Voluntarist]

World Aquatics launches open category for transgender athletes at Swimming World Cup

World Aquatics, swimming’s governing body, has created an open category for transgender athletes at a World Cup event in Berlin.

The new category will be open for “all sex and gender identities” and will include 50m and 100m races across all strokes.“

“This pioneering pilot project highlights the organisation’s unwavering commitment to inclusivity,” a statement from World Aquatics read.

Makes it sound like it might even be open to CIS-gendered competitors as well - if they chose to compete in that category.

Last year, World Aquatics – formerly known as FINA – voted to restrict transgender athletes from competing in elite women’s aquatics competitions.

The gender inclusion policy – which went into effect on June 20, 2022 – dictated that male-to-female transgender athletes would only be eligible to compete in the women’s categories if they transition before the age of 12 or before they reach stage two on the puberty Tanner Scale.

The policy also says athletes who have previously used testosterone as part of female-to-male gender-affirming hormone treatment would only be eligible to compete in women’s competitions if the testosterone was used for less than a year in total, the treatment didn’t take place during puberty and testosterone levels in serum were back to pre-treatment levels.

At the time, the governing body promised to establish a new working group in order to develop open category events for athletes that do not meet the criteria for men’s or women’s categories.

... and so now, the "Open" category has been established. I know that there are many who believe that competition in sports ought to be segregated dependent upon the sex (male or female) of the competitor, whereas others believe it ought to be based upon the gender identity of the competitor. This compromise isn't going to make either of the groups happy.

Athlete Ally, an advocacy group which works to end homophobia and transphobia in sport, told CNN Sport it was “dismayed” by the World Aquatics decision, which it says “promotes further othering and alienation of transgender athletes who already face tremendous stigma and abuse.”

It added: “As a society, we decided long ago that ‘separate but equal’ is dangerous and damaging. This policy does nothing to provide the kind of protections to women athletes that they have been calling for for decades — an end to sexual harassment and abuse, parity in pay and leadership, equal opportunities, and a lack of resources for women athletes."

Methinks Athlete Ally doth protest in a fashion contrary to the interests of all women. If “As a society, we decided long ago that ‘separate but equal’ is dangerous and damaging", then isn't that an argument against having separate sports categories for males and females?

Those competitors who have a biological basis for their gender dysphoria are basically suffering a genetic (DNA) or birth (endocrine) defect. This provides them with something akin to the "Special Olympics" to compete in. And I suppose the remainder, whose gender dysphoria comes from social contagion or other psychological factors, can fit into the same category based upon mental/emotional issues.